Monitoring Supply Chains: An Ongoing Challenge

Heather White President , New Standards

Factories are looking better…

As violations become more hidden

Multi-Stakeholder initiatives are growing…

But workers see little benefit considering the $$ spent

Groups Potentially Influencing Social Compliance, not exercising bargaining power

Consumers

Media

NGOs

Labor Unions

Students

Business partners

Investors (owners)

International Organizations

Church/religious groups

The Case for Worker Empowerment• Workers can sharing

responsibility for social compliance (even pushing it and enabling it)

• Empowered workforce sustains the workplace develops community

• Healthy community averts economic displacements

“ Audit Fatigue” in absence of achieving compliance

• Factories with multiple buyers

• Licensees or agents serving multiple brands with same info

• Shared auditing• Cost reduction means

factories pay• How to Minimize audit

‘fatigue’

Movement Toward Standardization

• Growing consensus– Respect for human rights– Int’l labor standards– Coming together of governments

- - Nafta, Asean, APEC, US-Jordan trade

• Cooperation bet. brands• Better info management • Access to information

Collaborative Initiatives among brands generate learning..

Role of Transparency in Reporting…

is a new trend, and a good one

• Users have ability to validate and disseminate reports - still early

• Growing number of ‘learned’ workers

• Growing number of civil society organizations

but weekly reports of child labor continue …